The current parental controls for parents are very poor, mainly around chat, which is one of the main things you’d parental control against in a game like this.
You have two options:
- No parental controls at all for chat.
- Literally all chat related features disabled.
If you do the former, you best option is to disable chat in the chat window. Except this is a per-character setting so the second he makes a new character it reverts.
If you do the latter, I can’t be friends with my kid. I can’t invite my kid to groups. I basically can’t play with him effectively.
We need a way to parental control different levels of chat and other features manually. I should be able to disable pvp instance chat but keep guild chat for our guild as an example. I should be able to have my kid on my friends list without also at the same time allowing him to see/respond to the rage that is alliance PUG PVP.
Please expand on this feature, it’s important!
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Can’t you choose which chat channels to join though?
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No. Stop trying to censor the Internet and filter your child’s experience, please.
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If chat was rated T for Teen, there wouldn’t be a problem…
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But the players are rated I for idiots. Well, those on trade chat anyway.
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You can but you have to set it up per character.
A simple solution would be a way to save these chat settings to your entire account. That would solve the ops issue.
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A teenager is exposed to so much more going to school, than they will ever experience in WoW.
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Here’s the problem though - the ESRB directly says that the game is rated T for teen, and online interactions aren’t regulated by them.
Your best bet is to become familiar with your UI. By entering the chat settings in the UI itself, you can turn off channels manually. If he makes a second character, it’s something you’ll have to go through just like I have to go through new profile setup every time I make a new character to properly set up my UI.
If it means you can play effectively with him, taking the 30 seconds to do that will be beneficial.
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this thread is gonna be good
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Those “idiots” in the trade chat are an endless source of laughs for me. Especially here in Aus where our trade chats are just filled with the best sh*tposting in the game.
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They basically have all the features you are asking for. Just go into the chat into the chat UI and disable the channels you don’t want them to see. Boom problem solved. Have to do it per character, but it literally takes 30 seconds to set up.
If your kid plays other games they probably experience stuff 10x worse than whatever is said on WoW. This community is pretty tame comparative to other games, lol.
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The way people act in this game disgusts me. as a 39 year old there is no way I would talk the way most of these people do in trade chat or say mode or even in bg’s. Yesterday I was in org waiting for a bg to pop up and this one player was going around trying to promote people to join his guild saying it was a guild for white people only.
I have legit saw so much racism hate going on in trade chat and them making fun of other people etc. it is disgusting how blizzard does not care for this type of stuff and allows it to happen. I make reports every time I see it and screenshot it and send it to blizzard but then a few days later I still see the same person in trade chat or in bg’s doing and saying the exact same things.
This game never used to be like this or this bad.
Easiest thing I can recommend to you OP is to take off parental control and use an addon that blocks chat logs except for your’s the guild, etc. doesn’t allow incoming whispers except only from white listed members. I think WIM is one of those that does that with whispers. but try finding an addon that helps with what you’re needing.
Edit: IT is heavily outdated but Advanced Parental Controls addon off curseforge and maybe someone who codes could update it, idk. but that is what I found.
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Game experience may change during online play
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Blizzard doesn’t moderate anymore. All of the moderation in their games are based on mass reporting now.
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I mean, I’d be fine with the option of applying UI settings game-wide if that’s what you’re looking for.
But at the same time, I feel like some people worry a little too much about what their kids get exposed to.
Yeah, they might hear/see some vulgar garbage. Yeah, if they hear it enough they might pick up on it.
So as a parent, if that happens, you talk to them. Let them know why it’s wrong, get on to them if they keep using it. You know, parenting.
I was 11 playing on Xbox Live listening to people throw [derogatory term for gay person] (among other things) around as a generic insult as commonly as one might call someone an idiot in the early 2000s. I picked up on that, parents heard it, talked to me about it, I stopped. Simple stuff.
I turned out okay.
If you’re more worried about harassment, just make sure your kid knows how to use the ignore feature. You can also make sure whispers go to a new tab if they’re having issues with someone circumventing /ignore. Easy enough to ignore a separate tab.
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What most people keep forgetting what America ( USA ) stands for . Everyone has the right to be a bigot . Even if others disagree .
I don’t condone that person poor choice of words . At the same time i don’t condone double standard when comes to racism .
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